1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of cooking appliances and, more particularly, to an oven rack system that includes a main rack having a cutout area which can receive and support an insert rack.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Ovens designed for household use in today""s marketplace are generally provided with multiple elongated racks (typically two), each of which has a lateral dimension substantially equal to the width of the oven cavity in which it is adapted to be placed for supporting items to be cooked. The cavity itself is generally provided with side wall runners for supporting respective lateral ends of the racks and permitting vertical adjustability of the racks. The use of multiple racks allows for effective use of the oven cavity during cooking.
It is often the case, however, that multiple items need to be cooked simultaneously within an oven and the height of at least one of the items is such that only a single rack can be accommodated within the oven cavity. In other words, even if the two racks are spaced vertically a maximum permissible distance within the oven cavity, the item to be cooked could not be placed upon the lower rack due to interference with the upper rack. Under such circumstances, the upper rack must be entirely removed from the oven cavity, thereby leaving only the single rack to support each of the items to be cooked. Unfortunately, this obviously limits the available supporting area for the various items to be cooked such that effective use of the entire oven cavity for cooking is prevented.
It has been proposed in the art to mount a partial width oven rack within the oven cavity above a full width rack. An example of such an oven rack is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,981. Unfortunately, such an arrangement has various associated drawbacks. Conventional ovens are provided with two full width racks for supporting items within an oven cavity. This configuration is necessary to allow users to take full advantage of the oven cavity. Use of a partial width oven rack would require removal of the upper full width oven rack and replacement with the partial width oven rack. Such removal of one of the full width oven racks is awkward and undesirable. Moreover, the use of a partial width oven rack presents rack storage problemsxe2x80x94when the partial width rack is not in use it must be stored in some location and when it is in use the removed full width oven rack must be stored in some location. Still another drawback of the partial width rack solution is that the rack requires special mounting tabs that fit in the slots formed into the oven cavity in addition to the conventional side runners provided for supporting full width oven racks. Moreover, even with the mounting tabs, partial width oven racks are limited in size and present problems with regard to stability and rack deflection under load due to the fact that partial width racks only have support along two adjacent sides.
The foregoing objects are achieved by a rack system for an oven wherein the oven includes an oven cavity having top, bottom, rear and side walls, the side walls including a plurality of support runners arranged as associated pairs on the side walls of the oven cavity. The oven cavity has an open frontal portion and an associated width defined by the lateral distance spanning the side walls. The rack system including a lower rack having a width substantially equal to the width of the oven cavity such that the lower rack may be supported by one of the runner pairs provided on the side wall of the oven cavity. An upper rack assembly is provided having a width substantially equal to the width of the oven cavity, the upper rack also being supported on one of the runner pairs provided on the side wall of the oven cavity. The upper rack includes a main rack and an insert rack. The main rack has a width substantially equal to the width of the oven cavity and has a platform area and a cutout area. The insert rack has an area substantially equal to the cutout area and is adapted so as to attach to the main rack and fit within the cutout area. The insert rack may be removed from the main rack such that large items, having a height greater than the vertical distance between the lower and upper rack, may be accommodated. The insert rack when removed, may be used as a trivet or cooling rack to support hot items on a countertop upon removal from the oven.
The present invention can be summarized even more concisely as a rack assembly for forming a support shelf for supporting articles in an oven enclosure. The rack assembly includes a main rack having a width substantially equal to the width of the oven enclosure. The main rack has a platform area and cutout area. An insert rack having an area substantially equal to the cutout area is adapted to be removably connected to the main rack and fit within the cutout area.